Early Look at New PvP Talent UI in Battle for Azeroth

The PvP Talent system is undergoing a revamp in Battle for Azeroth. Several weeks ago, we learned about the basics at the Battle for Azeroth Q&A. Now we have an early look at the UI.\r\rThis system is very likely unfinished and may undergo changes during alpha.\r\rIn Legion, Honor Talents are unlocked as you acquire more Honor from Ranks 1 through 50. With all talent options unlocked, you end up with a UI very similar to the regular Talents, in which there are six rows with three options, and you choose one talent per row.\r\r\r\rIn Battle for Azeroth, the Honor Talents are sticking around but they are part of a "bucket." Every few levels, you can pick another PvP talent from the bucket.\r\rCurrently in the PvP UI, there is *one bucket total* for the spec\/class-specific Honor talents. You can select one talent from this bucket at Level 20, 40, 70, and 110. This would be a total of 4 PvP talents, down from 6 in Legion.\r\rThe PvP Talent Tab has been removed and instead it is a little sidebar off the main Talent panel.\r\r\r\r\rThis seems incomplete as Ion talked about a special additional bucket\/row for "CC\/trinket abilities" which is not present in the alpha preview. We think this would likely fill the top bubble, as it's set apart and styled a little differently than the other bubbles.\r\rWith the UI we can also see that the PvP system can only be enabled\/disabled in Stormwind and Orgrimmar.\r\r\r\rFrom the new and changed PvP globalstrings in the latest build, we can see that Honor Talents have been renamed to PvP talents, basic descriptions are in for earning talents in the UI, and Prestige is sticking around but unrelated to PvP Talents:\rPVP_WAR_MODE_DESCRIPTION\rEnables world PvP with the opposing faction.|nActivates HonorPvP Talents for PvE.\rNEW LEVEL_UP_PVP_TALENT_MAIN\rNew PvP Talent Available\rNEW LEVEL_UP_PVP_TALENTPOINT_LINK\rNew |cffFF4E00|Htalentpane:|h|h|r Available!\rNEW LEVEL_UP_PVP_TALENT_SLOT_LINK\rNew |cffFF4E00|Htalentpane:|h|h|r Available!\rPVP_TALENTS\rHonorPvP Talents\rPVP_TALENTS_PRESTIGE_RANK_TITLE\r|cffff2020%s|r%s\rPVP_PRESTIGE_RANK_UP_WARNING\rYour Honor Level will be reset to 1 but you will keep all of your Honor Talents.\rNEW LEVEL_UP_PVP_TALENT_SLOT_MAIN\rNew PvP Talent Slot Available\rNEW LEVEL_UP_PVP_TALENT_SUB\rYour power in PvP increased!\rTOOLTIP_HONOR_POINTS\rHonor is gained by killing members of the opposite faction in PvP combat and completing PvP objectives. Honor increases your Honor Level to unlock Honor Talentrewards.\rLEVEL_UP_HONOR_LINK\r|cffFF4E00|Hhonortalent:|hpanet:|h Talents]|h|r Available!\rHONOR_TALENT_HONOR_LEVELS\rEarn Honor by participating in PvP. Reach higher Honor Levels to access new talents and rewards.\r\rAs a reminder, here's what we learned about PvP Talents from the Battle for Azeroth Q&A:\rAny plans to tweak the Prestige system?\rThe answer isn't to keep adding dozens of new tiers, mounts and cosmetic rewards but going forwards there are people who have grinded out prestige levels.\r\rGoing forward the current thought is: Keep the Legion prestige ranks, and add new prestige ranks in BFA but when you level up you get some kind of repeatable reward similar to Overwatch.\r\rWill there be more updates to Honor Talents in BFA?\rHonor Talents originally started resetting with Prestige levels but didn't end up working out. They feel too much like a barrier to entry right now. \r\rThey want to move away from a replica of the original talent tree but instead move to a bucket of talents and you pick any three out of the bucket. They do want to keep the trinket customization row as it's been successful.\r\rWill there be any other PvP updates in BFA?\rA new battleground will be coming out soon before BFA. New arena maps. On the rewards and mechanics side there are a couple of changes planned. One of the biggest changes for Legion was using Stat templates.\r\rHow will the world PvP work? You said that people across all servers will be separated.\rWhen you enable this feature, you will phase into a PvP only zone. While not everyone can phase into a single phase, you'll only be phased with people also who have the feature enabled.\r\rThe exception is RP servers which will follow the standard RP servers rules. Toggling World PvP on, on RP servers, you'll still be able to see players on the same servers with the Toggle off.

Comment by SyLVan0s

Comment by kleman96

Comment by Oixio

on 2018-02-24T08:12:10-06:00

just don't bring templates in BfA! \rthis is damn MMO RPG and not a Counter Strike or OW

Comment by AnionLP

on 2018-02-24T08:28:11-06:00

This looks nice, I hope we can get better PvP than in Legion, just like in WoD with Honor and Arena Points...\rAnd I hope we get extra Openworld PvP Gear like, every lvl you get a 20% chance for a new item and on every lvl it could be an other better item with an other look...

Comment by sProgrammer

on 2018-02-24T08:34:39-06:00

Time to kill some Alliance dogs. For the Horde!

Comment by Enrif

on 2018-02-24T08:57:27-06:00

this looks like the old glyphs system!

Comment by Arakara

on 2018-02-24T09:16:17-06:00

I was actually afraid that Blizzard would say "we're going to reset your prestige progress from Legion" or something. Happy to see that what I did during Legion will stay. :)\r\rSay what you want about PvP towers in Legion, it was still a nice way for PvE players like me to slowly grind their way towards some nice rewards, over time, while the real PvPers were already far ahead of us.\r\rI hope we'll still have something like Legion PvP towers around. I hope the difficulty to progress in prestige levels will kinda stay the same. \rI'd love for my orc blademaster to unlock cooler version of the Horde pennant during BfA.\rWhat? You can be a PvE player and still want to show your love for your faction.\r\rOn a side note, PvP sets are very often super cool. And lemme tell you, I'm NOT looking forward to wearing that hybrid Troll-Titan T22 set Blizzard talked about around BlizzCon.\rPvE players wearing sets visually designed around the raid where we get them is never appealing to me, and yet, Blizzard keeps doing that. I don't want to wear what the bad guys wear. I want to wear something that works with one of the many roles I can 'roleplay' as in the confines of what my race offers. For instance, we still don't have a proper Tauren paladin set. We still don't have a Wildhammer dwarf shaman set. T6 was the best option to look like a Stormwind human paladin until T20 (basically the same thing).\rMake for yourself a list like that of combo class\/race\/subfactions and try to work-out what you can do successfully do with PvE sets. You'll see it's not as easy as it looks.\rTo me, T19 was awesome, with its Argent Crusade Paladin set, its Windrunner\/Elven hunter set (Horde PvP for blood elves, Alliance PvP for high elves \/ void elves, MM for forsaken dark rangers...), that shaman set that managed to work for various races depending of the version you got (like the LFR one for Draeneis) or the Night-elf druid set...\rSame for Demon Hunters. Some nice sets and weapons were made. But in BfA, we already know they'll get Zandalari and Kul'tiran warglaives. Try to make THAT work in roleplay for a blood-elf and a night-elf. I personally don't see how I'll be able to.\rI'm gonna stop here because this is already getting out of hand and I'm only getting myself angry.

Comment by Soifon

on 2018-02-24T09:24:34-06:00

just don't bring templates in BfA! \rthis is damn MMO RPG and not a Counter Strike or OW\r\rYou do realize that stats template is what makes PvP fair to everyone and not a grindfest for the better geared players?\rI used to think that this sucks but when you lvl an alt or you are starting fresh and enter bgs , you want to start bging right away , it makes it unplayable.I do hope they keep it because I always disliked that I just to spit a bit of damage and kill someone or being 1-shoted by someone far better geaerd than me.

Comment by mathiaslindberg

on 2018-02-24T09:26:35-06:00

Remove stat templates. Make gear that only works in PvP and is better than any PvE gear. Fixed it for you.

Comment by Kurokun14

on 2018-02-24T09:30:58-06:00

Removing templates and going back to earning your pvp gear rather than a bad rng drop system would be preferable to me and my friends when we talk about pvp since legion

Comment by 1505947

on 2018-02-24T09:36:31-06:00

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Comment by docseuzz

on 2018-02-24T09:50:48-06:00

I'm more curious about the Activates PvP talents for PvE - having 3 + cc extra abilities while leveling through BfA certainly is an incentive to activate PvP....

Comment by Drex202

on 2018-02-24T09:56:29-06:00

Old major glyph system?

Comment by sadistic12345

on 2018-02-24T10:57:07-06:00

remove the tanks from pvp already stop fooling around with talents

Comment by Vynillin

on 2018-02-24T11:26:38-06:00

Remove stat templates. Make gear that only works in PvP and is better than any PvE gear. Fixed it for you.\r\rReturns to huge issue of the enormous and artificial gating to participating in actual PvP vs. just stomping 99% of players because you have stats in a PvP instance and they don't. Returns to huge issue of many extra sets of gear in bags taking up space needlessly. Returns to issue of an enormous and unnecessary divide and timesink between playing competitive PvP and PvE.\r\rNty. Been there done that. This is much better. Not perfect, but much better.

Comment by Whawk

on 2018-02-24T11:33:06-06:00

I hope they will not return pvp gear. I don't like grind pvp for !@#$ty armor and use it in open world. PVP templates are what makes pvp skill based, not gear based. And it's good.

Comment by 1505947

on 2018-02-24T13:35:23-06:00

This post was from a user who has deleted their account.

Comment by SquirePip

on 2018-02-24T13:35:29-06:00

just don't bring templates in BfA! \rthis is damn MMO RPG and not a Counter Strike or OW\r\rYou do realize that stats template is what makes PvP fair to everyone and not a grindfest for the better geared players?\rI used to think that this sucks but when you lvl an alt or you are starting fresh and enter bgs , you want to start bging right away , it makes it unplayable.I do hope they keep it because I always disliked that I just to spit a bit of damage and kill someone or being 1-shoted by someone far better geaerd than me.\r\rThis if I want to PvP, I shouldn't have to raid also. Funny how PvP'ers are always the ones claiming PvP is all about skill, yet any change that makes WoW pvp based more on skill than gear seems to get them mad.

Comment by Engaged

on 2018-02-24T13:40:46-06:00

I hope they will not return pvp gear. I don't like grind pvp for !@#$ty armor and use it in open world. PVP templates are what makes pvp skill based, not gear based. And it's good.

There absolutely should be PvP gear. When you're done grinding your gear and you're playing 2k mmr + you are on the same level as any template would ever get you. And it has to be good and continous rewards that are not cosmetics for PvP players aswell.

The differences should be in bonuses, trinkets and the ratio of stamina and primary stat. PvP gear can give more stamina and survivability, PvE more power. PvP trinkets should be equipped like before. Which gives you the upperhand when you meet PvE players without it. And also, if you've invested SO MUCH time in the game, either it's PvP or PvE, you shouldn't be locked out of either activity because of your gear. You've worked for and earned your rewards, now get out there and do what you want! There should be a gap, but not one that's making players in PvP gear be a safe win. Ultimately, it should be your skill and slightly higher survivability that makes you win in wPvP against a PvE player. Players who main PvE doesn't necessarily suck in PvP either!

Another thing I would suggest is lowering health of mobs and bosses in PvE. If the goal is to kill a mob with roughly 5-6 million health in 2-3 seconds in for example what equals the quality of 960+ gear today, then reduce health and player power by 40-50% (You kill players just as fast in WPvP btw). If you would meet a player and use the same rotation and burst on him as you did on the mob with this change, you would see the same numbers but 40% of his health gone. The mob however would be dead. Your damage per second on meters shouldn't equal killing your maintank in 3-4 seconds. The numbers and gaps are getting ridiculous.